Future of Fire
by CharmedPiper21
Summary: I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOREVER FOR RnR! PLEASE RnR! Twenty years into the future of Gaia and Terra with all characters except Quina and Red(they had to die...) As told by General Beatrix. Kuja is back and better.
1. Memory

I stood over the town of Alexandria. I listened to the sounds below me. After twenty years of reconstruction you would think we would be back to normal. We still had far to go. The whole right side of the castle was still in ruins and the Pluto misfits still had not gotten around to fixing it. Most of the townspeople had gotten use to the decreased quantities of food and supplies, the manual labor and the lack of housing that caused the ones without to sleep on the streets. To add to that, we welcomed survivors from Cleyra and Burmecia into our town, which added to the crowds. Twenty years agao I was sure things would get better, now I wasn't too sure.  
My thoughts were interrupted by a sudden stir behind me. I spun around so fast I nearly lost my balance and fell, "Adelbert!"  
He looked at me startled. He stood at the Terrace, leaning on the door frame. He had his everyday, heavy armor on. He broad features shot out of his face. At his side he wore a sheathed Mythril sword, not the best equiptment, but still enough to protect the pathetic live of Alexandria.  
I smiled slightly at the stern, but hilarious look on his face. I knew what he had came for. I checked the clock tower behind me. I was late for the conference with Treno and Esto Gaza yet again. I broke the evil silence, "Sorry Captain Stiener, I lost track of time, would you please inform the King and Queen that I will be at the meeting with the waring towns in a moment"  
I couldn't help but laugh as he just snorted with his hands on his hips confrontationally and marched off into the shadowed doorway of the castle. Twenty ears ago I had taken this job seriously, now it was just a source of minimum wage and events to get me through my day. I turned back to the town and spotted something off into the mountains. From where I stood it looked like an airship, but airship travel into the mountains had been banned due to the Great Oglop Smugglings a couple years back. I took no real notice of it and turned to walk to the meeting, late. I had only gotten to the door when I heard a kaboom behind me. I turned around half- calm until I saw what had happened. What I saw reminded me of twenty years ago. I wasn't sure if it was pyrotectnics or something more. I rushed to the front of the terrace, trying to get closer, even though I could do nothing. It was like when Bahamut attacked the castle. The flames rose higher though. I remembered the airship on the mountain. Were they alright? Out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of the airship riding to the west. I stood in awe for several minutes, which then became a half- an-hour until the flames died down and all that remained was the base of the mountain. I, again, heard a noise behind me but could not bring myself to trun around. I tried to speak, to try and yell to Captain Stiener that I would be right there but nothing came. The voice that came from behnd me was different than I expected.  
"General Beatrix.Will you please join us in the conference room? We would like to discuss the events that just occurred"  
I broke out of my trance and turned to face the messenger. I kneeled down to her. "Your Highness, please forgive me. I again lost track of time. I will join you quickly."  
Garnet looked at me with almost sympathetic eyes, even though I needed no sympathy. "Please hurry. These matters need to be retaliated against at a moments notice and we may have already lost this one."  
I remained kneeling "Yes, Your Highness." When I rose she had already gone. I took a final look at the mountains before continuing to the conference. 


	2. The Conference

I peeked around the doorframe and slowly took a step in. Everyone's attention quickly turned towards me. I observed the conference table. As usual, Queen Garnet Til Alexandros and King Zidane sat at the head of the table. On the left in order from farthest from me to closest sat Captain Adelbert Steiner of the Pluto Knights, Regent Cid and his wife, Lady Helga Guarde representing Lindblum, Doctor Tot here for Treno and an anonymous Burmecian soldier, no doubt her to report on the reconstruction of Burmecia. On the right sat many other anonymous representatives of the Forgotten Continent. Among them were a few dwarves from Esto Gaza(who immediately when I entered stood up with their "Rally Ho" and I returned the gesture out of pure sympathy), Vivi II and Vivi III(descendants of Vivi who inhabited the Black Mage Village with the Genomes) and Eiko for the Summoner's Village. My place was to the left of Sedan, across from Steiner.  
I sat down. In front of me, as in front of everyone, sat a sheet of paper, pen and some ink. I looked at the faces of the many guests, who all looked back at me anxiously, most likely frustrated for the amount of time it took me to simply walk down a hall. Steiner didn't make eye contact with me, neither did Zidane or Garnet. I broke the deathly silence with something I was sure they were all waiting for. "I am quite sorry for my absence, I was deeply effected by the very recent events and time slipped my mind"  
Garnet seemed satisfied. "That is alright General. However, speaking of the recent events, the disaster we shall call it, I am sure we were all shocked and this needs to be resolved. First of all, we need a course of action. I am sure this was not put up by any of you or any parties not present that stands at royal or representative status. This was a completely independent act and being so, shall be harder to figure out. I ask each of you to return to your territories and further investigations there as you see fit." She gestured towards the dwarves and to Tot. "As for the Treno-Gaza war, we are deeply sorry, but may have to reschedule our meeting and discuss those matters then. This requires utmost importance. Thank-you to the rest for coming on such short notice. Please report anything you know or find out to either General Beatrix or Captain Steiner."  
Garnet stood up and walked out the door, never taking a second glance at anyone. She had grown to be a fine Queen. Zidane looked around and his stern stare stopped at me. "General, do you have an alterative course of action in case of further attacks?"  
A million plans ran through my head, but none of them workable. I shook my head "However, I do have some vital information. After the explosion I saw an airship heading to the west of us, maybe they are heading to their next target, or if we're lucky, their lair. Either way, I assure you sire, we will stop them."  
For some reasons unknown Zidane completely ignored that, or he chose not to address it. He moved on to Steiner "How about you Captain?"  
Steiner had fallen asleep.  
Zidane rolled his eyes and continued the meeting. He went down the line "Cid, Helga, I have heard your town was finally back to normal and the airship docks were at their busiest, please report"  
Lady Helga spoke for them "Quite right, even more so than before the attacks of Kuja. The Economy could never be better."  
Zidane didn't seem satisfied with her answer but moved on "Tot, will you give us a short briefing on Treno?"  
Tot fiddled with his fingers as he spoke. "Same as every meeting, plenty of thieve to steal from the nobles.a perfect mix."  
Zidane was started to get irritated by the answers "And how is Burmecia coming?"  
The soldier's smile grew from ear to ear "My turn? Ok, the construction is all done and I have come to inform you that we may take back our citizens at any time, just give us the word"  
This seemed to be the only thing Zidane was happy about. "I have good news too! You may round up your citizens at any time and I'll even let you use our airships to transport them back." And with that, he changed subjects "Dwarves, do you have a preferable time for the meeting with Treno?"  
They shook their heads in unison. Annoyingly, they spoke in unison too "We Dunnae 'ave any bad times. Just 'ive us the word and 'll come. We're 'ere 'til Friday."  
He nodded and had one final survey of the guests. "Eiko and Vivi's II and III, will you please stay after? The rest of you are dismissed. Beatrix, please find Garnet and Locate Freya. Freya should be somewhere in the castle, I asked her to come for the second conference." 


	3. Reunited

We all sat at the table from our journey twenty years ago. Zidane had only gotten us together once before to let us know of their marriage. On the left sat Steiner, Vivi II and Vivi III. Next to me on the right sat Freya and Eiko.  
Zidane had already sloutched into his seat and lost the royal tone in his voice, "You all wanna know why you're here? I'm not sure if any of you heard, but our group's numbers are falling. Red was recently captured and hung for his flaws in Treno and Quina was found drown in the sea, no doubt went out to far to get a fish and couldn't swim back"  
Garnet continued with Zidane's big speech. Her voice too, had relaxed, "Me and Zidane believe the disaster that just happened.well, nevermind. Eiko, how have you been?"  
Eiko had grown to be a fine lady but was still as pushy as ever and unfortunately, her crush for Zidane had grown too. "Don't try to change the subject on me! What about the explosion? Please, Zidane, tell me my love."  
Zidane gave her a funny look, followed by a smirk. "I had really missed you Eiko. I had forgotten how cute you were, and how cute you have gotten at that."  
Garnet smacked him in the back of the head and everyone laughed. He had to reword that, "I mean how cute as in funny, cute." He rubbed the back of his head, it looked like it hurt.  
Everyone's mind seemed to be stuck on one idea. Mine still on the incident, Steiner still asleep, Eiko on Zidane, Freya on her marriage to Sir Fratley and the Vivi's on their existence. I grew bored real fast and I dropped my head on the table making a loud thumping sound. When I finally looked up everyone's eyes were on me. Garnet smiled at me, "Are you that bored already Beatrix?"  
Zidane tried to change the subject, "Now, about the recent deaths of our friends. We, of course, lost Vivi twenty years ago. He is survived and, in lack of a better word, replaced by Vivi II and Vivi III. Do you two have names, besides a number?"  
For the first time they spoke up. Vivi II spoke for them, "I am called Magic. Of course it is a bit pretentious, but it fits I must admit." Magic pointed at the mage next to him. "He is called Mab. He is mute. We think it is a manufacturing defect, but his lack of voice is made up for by some pretty powerful black magic."  
Zidane greeted them openly, "Very nice to meet you Magic and Mab. A great honor to have the descendents of Vivi is our presence. And to 'replace' Quina, we have with us now General Beatrix. We enjoyed her help twenty years ago and now she joins us permanently. Finally, to take the place of Red in our crusades, please welcome Lana, the bounty hunter turned mercenary."  
Lana entered with her oversized broadsword hanging from her back. She had light, brunette hair and the same primal clothes on now that she had on twenty years ago. She leaned against the doorway. "Hello all. Long time no see Eiko."  
Lana had lived with Eiko in Madain Sari for several years, acting as a mother figure before running off to Alexandria to enroll in the knights. She was not accepted because of her criminal past, but offered to be a volunteer missionary.  
Eiko jumped out of her seat and ran to Lana. They hugged each other then backed away. "Lana! I missed you so much!"  
Lana replied graciously, "Same here. I best think we take our seats, His Majesty might get angry."  
Zidane smiled before adding on, "I think we should brief you all on why we brought you here, and then we can get reunited once again." 


	4. The Vote

Zidane stood before us beside his queen, "I am sure all of you witnessed the explosion and, no doubt, reminded of the wars on Gaia and Terra twenty years ago.with the exception of Magic and Mab. But even new mages have learned of Kuja's existence and the army of black mages he had created."  
Magic and Mab seemed uncomfortable at the mention of Kuja's name. Zidane continued, "The airship you saw, Beatrix, was confirmed by our soldiers as the Invincible. When you brought it up earlier, I ignored it because if I had acknowledged that the Invincible was back I would have caused alarm. But the sad truth is that Kuja is back. Even from the Iifa tree's entangled roots, he has returned. It is not totally impossible, I mean I escaped. But he had stopped.I saw him lying there. So this means someone had to help him. Some one had to go down there and inject him with the 'mist serum'. The same injections we gave the mages and genomes so they would never stop."  
Everyone sat is shock. We had fought so hard to rid the world of Kuja. But our efforts seemed to have been forgotten. Garnet spoke, "For my mother, for Vivi, Magic and Mab, for Quina and Red, for everyone effected by Kuja and his aftermath. I would like to enter a proposal to the table. The proposal is this, we go after Kuja once again. The mist is gone. There are no more armies against us. Its no longer city against city, world against world, its only us against Kuja. I know this is a bit untraditional, but instead of breaking ties within the group, we will have a vote. To go after Kuja.or to leave him be and cause national alarm."  
I then discovered that the paper and pen in front of me was not for notes, but for the vote. Everyone seemed tense. One vote could tip the vote. Nevertheless, I had to write down.NO! I would rather Kuja live and make this world exciting again then go on one quick journey following an airship and destroying the only thing that put excitement back into the lives of the soldiers. Sad and hard to say, I had actually missed Kuja. 


	5. The Results

Zidane was counting the votes, everyone else was murmuring to each other. You could tell how each voted by the look on their face. Those who voted in favor of going after Kuja looked around anxiously with worried faces. The ones who voted to stay put were cool and calm but had shifty eyes. He finally gave all the voted to Garnet to read aloud.  
She read each vote with importance. Slowly she read the first vote and by the reactions on their faces you could tell whose it was. "First vote, Yes".Magic. "Second vote, No".Eiko. "Third, Yes".Mab. "Fourth, No".Mine. "Fifth, No".Lana. "Sixth, No".Steiner. "Seventh, Yes".Freya. "Eighth, Yes".Zidane. Garnet took the last vote, her own, "We have decided.Not to go after Kuja." The no voters smirked, the yes voters all stood up and yelled at Garnet in protest.  
Zidane, Freya, Mab and Magic all walked over to the door. Freya stepped forward and spoke for them, "Do any of you remember what he did to us? To everyone? To Alexandria and Burmecia? Garnet, Your Highness, Garland and He killed both of your mothers, do you even care?"  
Garnet stood up to confront them, "We have already avenged those hurt before. We beat him twenty years ago! As a queen I must exhibit forgiveness. And as being presumed dead for twenty years, I do believe he deserves forgiveness. But as for the present, I believe he has done wrong and shall be caught and justified.orderly!"  
All the while Mab had been using actions to express his feelings and I found it quite funny. He was the first to react. He stormed out of the room and turned left, followed by Magic. Freya soon followed after giving us all a glare. Zidane hung by the doorway and shot a look at Garnet "I cannot forgive him." With that he ran out of the room, slamming the door behind him.  
Garnet sat down, "Now that that is over, what shall we do about the explosion?"  
Obviously she didn't know the layout of the castle too well or wasn't paying attention. I decided to take it upon myself and inform her, "Your Highness, the only place down the hall left of here is the airship docks. My guess is that they plan to take a ship and go after Kuja themselves"  
It was like a light-bulb had gone off in her head. She stood up and bolted to the door. I got up and followed. 


End file.
